


Distance

by Ramasi



Series: Fire-Breathing [1]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Established Relationship, Insults, M/M, Season/Series 02
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-17
Updated: 2010-04-17
Packaged: 2017-10-27 20:25:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/299717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ramasi/pseuds/Ramasi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post season two. Merlin is angry and Arthur is a prat. Mostly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Distance

"You are – " Arthur says, " – the worst – " And there's a brief, surprised pause, which is the least, Merlin feels. " – manservant _I'veeverhad_."

The last bit gets lost in a strangled moan as Merlin pushes back inside him, warm sweet heat taking him in, but it's still too much that Arthur can talk like this at all, with Merlin buried inside him to the hilt; he's spread out before him on the large red bed, completely naked unlike Merlin who's kept his red neckerchief, wide open, arms and legs spread, knees pushed up; a visible tremor runs all through his body and to the tip of his cock with every thrust and yet – he's looking oddly relaxed as well as electrified.

"Your other manservants didn't do this," Merlin bites out even as he tries to push, to reach, even further, sweep inside him, under his skin, into his bones, and Arthur heaves up his ass to meet him. They're both still and trembling, their breathing heavy and loud in the stillness.

" _If_ they did, they would have been better," Arthur answers, his voice almost completely normal, and stares up at him with annoying, challenging eyes, strikingly blue in the afternoon light. "Really, Mer – mmm." The end is close to a whine as Merlin withdraws, and Merlin feels triumphant; but he feels the loss just as much, the sudden cold and _lack_ of something primordial, yet he pulls out completely – Arthur grabs his bed sheets, convulsively – and pushes back in violently, with all the pent up frustration, all the secrets he wants to hurl at Arthur's head and can't, and repeats the movement with almost more anger than lust. There will be marks on Arthur's stomach where Merlin has rested his hands.

After, he lies next to Arthur, their legs still entangled, wet spot under his stomach and he can't be bothered to move, and the loss of imminent pleasure leaves him feeling empty, the unsaid things heavy, bared of the violence. Next to him, Arthur can't lie still, shifts around, then lays a hand on the base of his neck, fingers stroking delicately, almost hesitant.

"You all right?" he asks, after a silence.

Merlin bites down a bitter laugh that comes out as a snort.

"Yeah."

Another silence; Arthur's fingers are tickling him in their lightness, and it's not really agreeable, yet he seems to need this, and Merlin doesn't have the will to tell him to stop.

"Er," Arthur eventually says, and his hand stills. "You know I didn't mean it?" Merlin turns his head to the side, confused, to see Arthur looking at him with wide, serious eyes, and clearly uncomfortable. "This was, uhm." He wriggles around his free hand nonsensically. "Great."

Merlin snorts out a sort of half-laugh again, but he finds it's hard to quite hold on to the bitterness. Every time he comes close to the edge where leaving seem to become a real possibility, and destiny (if that wasn't a lie from the start) be damned (and he's _thought_ about it, running away to spend his life by the border of a lake, looking over the water day after day, or returning to Ealdor and hold on to his mother and maybe never tell her...), Arthur has to come along and do something so very – _Arthur_. It's like he's doing it on purpose.

"Thanks," he answers, with an a little cocky smile.

Arthur moves his hand up to ruffle his hair roughly, so Merlin shakes him off.

"As a manservant you're still horrible though," he adds; Merlin's smile just widens into a satisfied grin, and he closes his eyes on Arthur's glare.


End file.
